Audiobook Review: What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz

As a teenager Dean Koontz was my favorite author. In the late 80’s and early 90’s he published some of my favorite supernatural thrillers. From Watchers to the Bad Place, from Strangers to Mr. Murder, I just couldn’t get enough. Then, something changed, maybe is was me growing up, or maybe Mr. Koontz’s novels just began to grow stale and repetitive. Yet, with each new addition to his library, I became less excited and more disappointed. During the 2000’s I can’t think of one of his novels that just blew me away. Oh, the Odd Thomas series had its moments, but mostly is was just a lot of interesting concept novels that never really went anywhere.

So, with that in mind, I strapped the old earphones on and began to listen to his latest, What the Night Knows read by Steven Weber. Within minutes, I was fully engaged. By the end of the first hours, I remembered why I loved Koontz when I was younger. Koontz tells a great story. In What the Night Knows, we have a modern day Ghost story, creepy and at points seemingly hopeless. It has all the great Koontz themes, tragic past, redemption, true evil, respect for life in all its forms and of course (yet not on such a big scale as others) the benefits of a good dog.

Steven Weber was a great choice to narrate this tale. His voice is simple, and he just allows the story to flow instead of forcing it. He doesn’t overdo the character voices, allowing Koontz’s dialogue rhythms to indicate characters voices, more so that squeaky falsettos, and octave gymnastics.